


Inspiring Heroes

by Miranda_tries_their_best



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Blood and Injury, Child Abuse, Depression, Except not really because he's like 16, Kinda, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, They didn't know Roman was not an adult, Villain Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Virgil Patton and Logan are superheroes, past parental death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24604117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miranda_tries_their_best/pseuds/Miranda_tries_their_best
Summary: The past year a fame-seeking villain has been challenging the heroes Logic, Morality, and Anxiety to fight him all across the city.The Prince's only interest had seemed to be being annoying but not actually hurting anyone until suddenly something makes the villain willing to destroy everything his path to hurt them and the heroes realize that their fights have held more meaning then they initially assumed.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, I know I'm writing the fic but i don't know yet if anyones actually dating, It could be platonic I might keep it vague
Comments: 16
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

The fight is horrible, the building their in is barely standing anymore and Virgil can only hope that Logic and Morality managed to get everyone out safely while he kept the villain distracted.

It doesn't usually escalate this far. The Prince has always been more interested in simply causing property damage and picking a fight with the heroes rather than hurting civilians, the villain even went as far as to help people escape in the past but there's something wrong this time.

The Prince's chest heaves with exhaustion but his red eyes still burn with energy. He didn't banter or respond to Anxiety's taunts, the villain didn't try to flee after a significant fight, he didn't accept that he lost and retreat, he just kept fighting and destroying.

Virgil hasn't seen this much destruction in a long time and as the building falls down around the two, the hero realizes that The Prince isn't going to back down this time unless Virgil takes him down. Morality has said that The Prince doesn't seem like a bad person, just angry with too much power and Virgil felt inclined to believe that that as he's seen the man go out of his way to make sure no one was caught in their crossfire but it's obvious now that something has changed.

"This is your last warning, Princey!" It feels wrong, everything is off but Anxiety is here to protect this city, and the Villain before him ignores him once more and starts summoning more energy, too much to be any sort of harmless attack so he doesn't have a choice.

Anxiety stops holding back.

Every shadow from every crevice of the building lurches forward and instead of an attack, The Prince is forced to summon a shield for himself as solid darkness try to pierce into him. Maybe Virgil should have never held back on the guy, he should have never listened to that little voice in his head that made him take it easy because if even a single life was lost in this fight then none of it will have been worth it.

He puts the Prince on defense, forcing the man to either raise shield or slice through Anxiety's shadows with that sword he loves to summon but barely knows how to actually use. Virgil keeps him busy, keeps him moving and unable to cause any more damage until he starts slowing down, starts retreating backward which the hero is grateful for as neither of them are able to keep it up much longer.

Finally, Logic speaks through their earpiece. "Morality's healing some wounded, there are five people unaccounted for but so far no known deaths."

God, five people. "He's tired but so am I," Virgil replies after he rolls out of the way of a slash of energy that cuts straight through the rubble behind him, the Prince usually likes to add more flair to his attacks but doesn't seem to care of appearances anymore. "He's not stopping, Lo. We need to take him down."

"Understood." Logic's voice devoid of feeling but Virgil knows that something about the Prince has been bugging him for a long time now. "I'll flank from behind, keep him focused on you."

Anxiety does just that, keeping up his attacks to keep the man distracted until he spots Logic in position. "Prince, stop this!" Virgil tries one last time but the villain's eyes burn with a wrath that's borderline feral.

"Fuck you." The Prince spits and fires a beam that pierces through Virgil's shadows, the hero just barely dodges the attack that blows a hole through the already unstable floor.

The villain misses the tiny explosive robot Logic tosses until it explodes right behind him, making the guy cry out as the blast throws him several feet. Virgil shoots his shadows forward, hoping to restrain him before he can recover but a pulse of heated energy disintegrates them before they get close. Fortunately, the Prince is barely able to stand before another robot lands by him and explodes before the villain can even process it's there.

Virgil has to shield his eyes from the blast that's a little too close to him but feels a raising horror in his gut as the scream the prince gives is cut off very suddenly. The hero looks up to see Logic rushing towards him, or rather, rushing towards the large hole in the floor in front of him.

"Shit." Virgil hisses out and scrambles to his feet, ignoring the ache of his body as he stands on the other side of Logan and looks down to the floor below him. "Oh, fuck." Virgil has to fight back his nausea.

The Prince lays on the on the rubble several feet below, heaving through pained wheezes as he desperately grasps at the rebar impaled through his side as blood spreads around him.

"Anxiety," Virgil's attention snaps up to his teammate. "Go get Morality if no one else is in critical condition." Logic doesn't waste time jumping over the edge to the floor below and rushing to the Prince's side and Virgil finds himself doing what he's told, pooling shadows under himself to carry him to the ground below.

Morality finds him first, likely already been told by Logic to meet him halfway and Virgil doesn't spare any time with greetings as his secondary power fills him with a sense of dread, something's wrong, it's a pit in his stomach that interlaces with his natural anxiety to scream at him but never actually tell him what's wrong exactly.

The shadows carry the two of them to the floor Logic and the Prince are one and Virgil has nothing to prepare himself for what he sees.

Logan looks up at them, eyes wide and full of tears. "Patton, it's-" He chokes out before looking down at the now unmasked and unconscious Prince whose head is in the man's lap.

It's a teenager.

Virgil watches numbly as Morality rushes forward, hands already glowing with a healing green. "Oh no, oh Roman, honey-" The hero kneels beside them, looking over the rebar that juts out of the side of the boy's stomach.

They've been beating up a kid.

Anxiety stays back, let's his teammates focus on the vill- probably one of their students given by the way he knows them.

How many times has Virgil slashed the Prince down with shadows?

How many times has the Prince been burnt by one of Logan's robots?

How many times has Patton kicked the Prince through a wall?

This isn't the first kid that's tried to be a "villain," especially not a teenager but they've always been harmless and are usually talked down easily. Usually, they just don't understand the dangers or are just angry and lack the restraint they need to be taught but those cases have never lasted more than one encounter and never resulted in a fucking kid running from heroes with broken bones and new scars.

"Anxiety!" Logan's voice cuts through his thoughts, his teammate put the Prince's mask back on and as holding the boy in his arms. Virgil ignores the puddle of blood and the chunk of metal at his feet. "We need to go, now."

Patton nods, hands bloody but at least the kid doesn't seem to have an open wound anymore. "They found the last people while you two were... No one's seriously hurt and needs me."

"Yeah, right." Virgil's gaze lingers on the teenager, covered in burns and scratches from their fight. "We can figure out what to do back at base."


	2. Chapter 2

Roman's life fell apart the week after he turned fifteen when the police showed up at his door with a warrant and the news that his father was dead.

His world view shattered as the man who loved him and gave him everything he needed was revealed to be the infamous supervillain; The King.

Morality, Logic, and Anxiety were the most skilled heroes in the city, they were amazing and kind, they did what they needed to and did their best to reason with any who could be reasoned with.

Roman had looked up to them, had covered his room with posters of them as they inspired him to be a hero too. His dad always encouraged Roman, let Roman steal the TV to watch the rare interviews they did, helped Roman sketch out his own superhero suit as a kid.

His heroes killed his dad.

The King was a bad person who stole and terrorized. A powerful villain who seemed unstoppable, one who threatened lives with sadistic glee.

Roman could never process that it was the same person as his dad, not his dad who loved him, who watched Disney movies with him, who took him and his older brother to amusement parks during the summer and skiing in the winter.

Roman had lost his dad and everyone was happy about it, celebrating that he was gone.

Roman watches his childhood house get torn apart by investigators, he watches Remus fight for custody of him, he watches his friends turn against him when the King's identity is leaked, he watches people not trust him but not consider him dangerous since he's registered as not having powers.

Dad always said if he wanted to be a hero then no one could know what his abilities are.

Remus helped Roman burn all his hero posters when he moved into his brother's apartment.

Roman feels numb for a while, Remus tries his best to help him as his grades start slipping as his motivation to do anything disappears but Remus is barely nineteen at the time and having a hard enough time holding down a job when the city knows him as the kid of one of the worst villains they've ever had.

It's Remus punching a hole through the wall at three in the morning over bills(and probably the fact he's gonna have to pay to fix the hole in the wall) that finally motivates Roman to do something.

It's surprisingly easy to rob a bank, Roman finds, it's surprisingly fun to actually use his powers too.

It actually makes him feel something for the first time since his dad died.

He comes home and gives Remus the money he took. It's not too much, just enough that Remus should be able to not stress so much while looking for a job.

Remus is stuck between being furious his little brother robbed a bank and being impressed that his little brother robbed a bank but Roman gets the message that Remus does not approve given that he very loudly tells him not to do it again.

Roman does it again, justifies it by donating most of the money. He only keeps enough to buy fabrics to make himself an actual costume, motivated for the first time in so long to actually create something.

He becomes The Prince, wearing an improved version of the costume he drew up with his dad all those years ago. People claim he's a copycat of The King despite the fact that Roman does none of the things his dad did, he just causes while chasing after a rush he gets nowhere else.

It isn't till he meets his former idols that things get a little more serious.

They start foiling his plans, they start trying to stop him, they start fighting him.

Roman can admit that it's his own fault, he usually throws the first punch and doesn't care to listen but his Father's murderers try to arrest him and his vision just got white with fury.

Roman stops robbing places and starts coming home with bruises and burns and the occasional broken bone.

Remus tries to reason with him, tries to ground him, tries to scare him, tries to lock him in his room at night but Roman is filled with a dark bitterness that he's too stubborn to let go of.

"You're going to get yourself killed like dad." Remus says to Roman he catches him sneaking out on the night of his sixteenth birthday.

"I don't care." Roman just knows that this is the only thing that keeps him moving.

"Fine, destroy yourself then."

Remus doesn't try much after that, just silently calls his friend to come to heal the worse of Roman's injuries so he doesn't need to go to the hospital.

It's two months after that when Mr. Hart pulls him aside in the theater club.

"I know things have been a little rough on you lately." Mr. Hart constantly shuts down anyone who brings up Roman's father to him, even the sweetheart the teacher has had no tolerance for anyone who tried to bully. "You're such a bright kid but it seems like you don't have that spark you use to have, I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine." Roman tries to assure him with his signature smile. "I just- I haven't really been feeling up to my usual center stage self, I'm sure I'll defeat these demons in no time though!" He's been promising that for over a year now, saying that he'll work harder to pull his grades up, that he'll put more effort into his parts but his word is as good as trash by this point even if no one will say it.

It makes sense that Mr. Hart doesn't buy it. "Roman, are you safe at home?" But Roman never expected that question.

"What? Of course!"

"Okay, I just-" The teacher hesitates, eyes filled to the brim with concern. "I just noticed the other day when you were getting measured for the costumes that- well, that you seem to have a lot of bruises and-"

"And what?" Roman knows that Mr. Hart is just doing his job, knows that he's just trying to care but even the implied thought that Remus would do this to him makes his blood boil. "You- How dare you?!"

Mr. Hart raises his hands, trying to pacify him. "I was just worried, kiddo. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Well, that's perfect!" Roman all but growls. "You don't have to see it anymore." He turns away from the teacher, from the club he's been a part of before he was even in high school because of how he followed Remus around, away from the stage that he loved, and away from the few classmates that still talked to him like a normal person. "I quit."

It's only a two days later that Mr. Berry tells him to stay after class which is fine at first because he just discusses Roman's late assignments that the teenager didn't do and honestly doesn't remember even getting, the man cuts him some slack at least and gives Roman extends the due date for him which just leaves him feeling guilty because he knows he's not going to care enough to do it.

"I heard you stopped attending the theatre club." Mr. Berry says as Roman grabs his sweater from his desk.

"Oh yeah, I bet Mr. Hart told you all about." It was supposed to be more teasing but Roman finds his voice just comes out angry. "Are you going to accuse my brother of beating me too?"

"No, I don't believe that would help the situation at hand." Roman bites his tongue so he doesn't say 'no shit' at a teacher. "I just wanted to inform you that the school is legally required to look into this matter to ensure your safety, this also means that Remus will be called in to discuss this."

"I assume this is also connected to the reason you struggle in class so much." Fancy way of saying his grades are shit.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"I understand." Mr. Berry sighs and gets up to open the door for Roman. "I hope you will consider speaking with the guidance counselor at the very least. You're a very bright and passionate student, Roman. I don't want to see you waste your potential."

"Of course." Roman has heard this a thousand times over. "I'll try to do better, Mr. Berry." He won't, he doesn't know why he even still bothers to come to school anymore.

When he gets home Remus isn't there which isn't strange since his older brother goes out with his friend all the time. It gets a little weird when Remus doesn't come home for supper but Remus has texted him at two in the morning asking what he wants on his pizza before so Roman shrugs it off.

Roman starts getting nervous when Remus isn't there in the morning to shove him out of bed like he's done every day since he's moved in. Roman calls in sick for himself, mimicking Remus's voice despite the fact that the lady in the office doesn't actually care enough to know who's calling in.

It's noon when Remus's friend comes in, finding Roman and giving him shit for not being in school since that's where Janus had first looked for him while the man haphazardly packed some of Remus's clothes and telling Roman pack up to stay somewhere for a few days too before dragging the boy to his car.

Remus had been a casualty in a fight between supers, one of Logic's robots being knocked to the side and his brother being caught in the blast.

Janus explains more on the drive but Roman zones out after hearing "dead for almost two minutes."

If Roman was listening he'd realize that Janus was keeping things vague for a reason. If he had paid attention maybe he would have remembered that Logic's robots don't explode unless directly on target. If he had stopped to look around he might have realized that Janus wasn't heading towards the hospital but Roman doesn't care.

Something in him breaks and all he sees is red.

The moment Janus stops for a red light Roman gets out of the car, ignoring his brother's friend and using his powers to push himself so that he can get back home faster.

He doesn't have an idea what exactly he plans to do and it scares him a little how calm he feels because all he knows is that he wants to hurt someone, some specific someones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda struggled a little here because I only have the motivation to write when I'm sleep deprived for some reason so I didn't think ahead and be like, it's fucking early to know exactly what's going on with Roman but I wrote this chapter as the second and then the third chapter is written in a way that expects the reader to already know what's up with Roman's dad and I couldn't figure out how to edit it right.
> 
> But then again, this was supposed to be a oneshot so, here we are


	3. Chapter 3

Logan can't believe what he's looking at.

He sees Roman August unconscious in one of their private holding cells. The teenager had been cleaned of blood and put in some spare clothes Virgil keeps around, in a slightly too big tank top and sweatpants that do nothing to hide the scars that litter the boy's body.

How did they not realize who he was?

Logan didn't know what to think.

On one hand, The Prince is a criminal who abused his power for self-gain, threatened people's safety and lives even if unintentionally(until recently.)

But on the other, this is one of Logan's kids. This is his student who had once been passionate about the stage and had charmed everyone with his smile and would interrupt the class to sing with his friends, at least, until his father died.

Logan has never felt so stupid for brushing off The Prince's connection to The King.

It's not required for any powered individuals to have their abilities recorded unless they hold a criminal record but some families like to have it written down or tests are done in case the power is less noticeable, on all Roman's test documents it says the boy's test came back negative, that he shouldn't have any powers at all.

Why would anyone have suspected Roman to be The Prince? Someone without powers? Someone who's not even an adult?

Powers tend to be hereditary too, someone related to The King should match his skill in hallucinations but Roman's powers were completely physical, summoning and shaping energy into burning rays that could cut through cement or physical shields that could block explosions.

God, Logan threw his explosives are a child.

The man could easily think of why Roman might have it out for them, Logan may not have known Romulus personally but Patton had met the man regularly as supervising teacher of the drama club and despite the villain's cruelty while masked, it seems like he had genuinely loved and supported his sons. Of course, Roman would want revenge for the death of his father.

Logan just can't understand why the sudden change in behavior.

The Prince seemed to enjoy picking fights them and being a nuisance but he never showed malicious intent, the boy did his best to make sure no one else was hurt, had always hesitated to fire attacks directly at them.

It seemed more like The Prince was attacking them for show rather than actually to hurt them until this recent battle, Logan had figured that the villain was probably a glory seeker, especially given the name. Someone out to be noticed in any means but didn't actually care to hurt people, a nuisance that was hard to catch and not really worth the energy to track down when they had worse to fight.

Not a hurt sixteen-year-old lashing out and self-destructing.

It makes Logan question each time he saw a hit that Roman could have dodged but didn't, each time Roman blocked the worse of the blows but left himself open to minor ones that he could have blocked easily by shielding his whole body.

It could have just been the adrenaline of the fight, tunnel vision making the boy only focus on what's in front of him but that isn't much comfort to the teacher either.

Logan sighs through his nose and tiredly rubs his eyes.

How did he not see it?

Logan Berry has spent months attacking the same young man he was so worried about in his class, every bruise Roman showed up with that they were so concerned about was from one of them.

Logan thinks about the times Roman vanished into the night with a limp arm bent at an awkward angle, someone must have been partially healing him as the boy never showed up to school with anything more than a few bandages and a limp.

Logan wanted to strangle whoever didn't heal him properly, whoever let him continue walking around in pain, whoever didn't stop a fucking child from getting hurt. This is the first time that Logan's seen Roman without some sort of injury in months and it's because Patton wouldn't walk away until every little scratch was healed.

"He wake up yet?" Virgil's voice startles Logan out of his thoughts.

"No, no, not yet." Logan fixes his glasses and looks at his partner who joins him behind the one-way window. "How's Patton?"

"Not great, asked to be alone for a bit." Virgil takes a deep breath and anxiously runs his fingers through his hair. "Can't find the brother either, the apartment was empty but I think I found Roman's cell. It's hard to tell from the brother's room since it's a mess but it looks like some of Roman's dresser drawers were left open and clothing was missing, seems like he was packing to go somewhere."

"We can't be sure Remus is the cause for that when we don't know what Roman was planning after fighting us, he may have been planning to run away." Logan doesn't really believe that but there's no way to rule it out. "Have you checked Remus's job?"

"Yeah, he apparently hasn't had one in a while." Virgil tugs at the sleeves of his hoodie. "Records say he had a habit of paying rent late but the past six months have always been on time."

That is unfortunately suspicious. "Have you tracked his bank account?"

"Not yet, I don't want to raise a fuss in case he's just like- being paid under the table for a company for something not bad." Logan gives his partner a look but Virgil just shrugs. "Patton talked about the kid getting bullied for his dad, I just-" The man runs his hand through his hair with a huff. "It sucks having a family name associated with a bad dude, this Remus guy could be working in the back of some store unofficially because someone took pity but didn't want the King's name associated with them." He defends. "Look, I'm trying to give someone the benefit of the doubt for once. If I go poking around for him and someone notices it could ruin whatever he has."

"That's very kind of you, Virgil." Logan rests his hand on the man's shoulder, smiling as his teammate loses some of the tension he was building. "We can start looking if Remus doesn't turn up soon but I'm proud of you for thinking about his safety first." Logan supposes Virgil would understand that more than anyone given the man's family, shadows had once been associated with a powerful group of villains after all, and Virgil has spent well over a decade redeeming his name to the city.

"Yeah, well, you know." Virgil takes the hand Logan has on his shoulder and interlocks his fingers with Logan's. "Life sucks, can relate. What are we gonna do about him?" He gestures to the unconscious teen.

"I am unsure." Logan squeezes Virgil's hand. "I'll be the first to admit that the reeducation for superpowered youth is... Severely flawed."

"It's fucked up." Virgil translates so elegantly.

"That's an accurate way of putting it." Logan agrees, half the time the troubled kids put in it those facilities just come out angrier adults with less control of their abilities then they should. "Roman was such a passionate kid before his father died, he's creative and smart and devoted." Logan pauses to collect himself, now is really not the time to get overemotional. "I don't- I don't want to see that be stripped of him, I don't want anyone who said he would become this to be proven right."

"Yeah, not to mention his abilities. You saw the shit he could make when he wasn't just blindly attacking." Virgil makes a sweeping motion towards Roman, mimicking a gesture the boy often made to create something though it's less accurate due to Virgil only having one free hand. "I can't even hold my shadows into shapes as long as him and I've got decades of training on the brat." Even the sword that The Prince summons isn't just sword-shaped energy, it comes with details on the blade, a hilt, what appear to be gems and engravings, all on something the teenager just creates without much thought.

"Something happened to provoke him, he wasn't actually trying to hurt us until today." Logan just hopes that whatever happened doesn't make Roman unreasonable. "If we just figuratively drop him into the laps of a correctional facility, he'll likely just gain more of a grudge against us."

"So, we can't let him off with a warning because he's an angry and dangerous kid." Logan watches Virgil huff and blows a lock of hair out of his face. "And we can't turn him in because there's a good chance he'll be even angrier and dangerouser adult in a few years."

"Our only option is to keep him."

"Great," Virgil snickers. "Guess we're dads now."

"Patton will be so pleased," Logan says with a small smile but quickly represses it with a hushed tone. "Let's not repeat this jest in front of Roman or his brother when we contact him."

"Yeah, no, I wasn't- I got that, Lo. No worries."

**Author's Note:**

> Man, I already have lots of other wips I should be writing but like, what's one more to the pile? 
> 
> Weirdly enough I have two other chapters of this already written but I'm gonna try not to spam them all at once like I have the habit of doing


End file.
